


Maybe Actually

by Yellowbirdbluetoo



Category: The Loud House (Cartoon)
Genre: ?? - Freeform, Based on that one episode but it’s only the loud kids, F/M, Genderswap, what??? A straight ship
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-02-18
Updated: 2018-03-14
Packaged: 2019-03-20 13:21:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,866
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13718565
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yellowbirdbluetoo/pseuds/Yellowbirdbluetoo
Summary: Linka Loud is most definitely not in love with her best childhood friend, Clyde McBride. Definitely absolutely not.Linka is fifteen, finally has her own room, and is sill besties with her friend, Clyde, who’s lived down the street from her house nearly as long as she can remember.And yes, she loves Clyde in the ‘he’s my best friend and we’re completely-platonic’ way. Not in the ‘secretly in love with my best friend’ way.Of course not.Besides it’s not like he’d ever like her back, right?





	1. She's the girl next door

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Clyde and Linka meet.   
> -  
> Fate.

“There’s a new family moving in next door!”. Linka Loud says excitedly to... well to whoever would listen. Which happened to be Lars. Because everyone else was older. And Lars was four. The prefect age for just sitting and playing and listening to Linka moan and groan about being the only girl in a family of guys.

He also didn’t seem to care about this possibly life changing discovery. Linka tugs him up and points across the street so he can look out the window too. 

Lars still doesn’t seem interested. He’s mostly occupied playing with some weird action figure. It’s a very creepy looking thing, but no one listens to Linka all the times she comments on it, so they must be used to it. 

“Oh please, oh please have a kid my age!”. Linka has her fingers crossed. Linka is seven. No one in her house is her age. The closest is Lynn but he was ten and once he hit double digits he stopped wanting to do a lot of girly stuff. He did a lot of sports and Linka didn’t really have fun doing them so she didn’t spend much time with Lynn. 

Lane and Luke, twelve and thirteen, had different interests too. Lane was all about pranks and jokes. Every time Linka hung out with him she ended up with her hair wet, or a pie in the face, or just a sticky note with ‘pinch me’ on the back and a terrible pun thrown at her as she left to get clean. 

Luke had been obsessing over music since he was Linka’s age. His room was always blaring guitar music. Most of it didn’t sound like much yet. 

Loni and Loki, fourteen and fifteen, seemed worlds away. Loni, since he was old enough and had a cell phone, was allowed to go to his friends house and if he pestered enough he could get Dad to take him to the mall. 

Loki hardly looked up from his phone. He was almost on it twenty-four/seven. He was the oldest too. Linka didn’t know why that was important but apparently it was to everyone else. 

Except Lars. Linka likes being a big sister for once. Now she wasn’t youngest. 

“Oh! There they are!”. She says happily when a red buggy pulls up Besides the moving van to the house. “Not a convertible, good sign”. In his free time, Lane, between horrible jokes, told her what to look out for in a family with kids. Car with a backseat had been a requirement.

Her fingers almost ached from how hard they were being crossed as they car doors opened and out stepped two adults and...

A kid! He looks younger than Loki. But way older than Lars. Maybe her age?

She almost didn’t wanna get her hopes up. But that’s pointless because they’re already soaring up in the sky. 

She leaves Lars to his own thing, rushing down the stairs and shouts out she’s going outside, and is out the door as soon as someone confirms her exclamation. 

She’s across the street in less than a minute. Probably a new world record for street crossing. The kid, really short dark hair, dark skin, and a DS in hand, glances up at her with a curious and semi-frightened look.

“Uh h-hi”. He gives a meek wave and Linka smiles. She doesn’t wanna come on too strong. “Hi! I’m Linka. I’m seven. I live across the street”. 

“I’m C-Clyde”. He has a stutter. “I’m e-eight and a half”.

Close enough.

“Clyde, come help with the- oh!”. A man that looks very similar to Clyde comes over and smiles. “Why hello! Who might you be?”.

“I’m Linka Loud. I live across the street from you. Glad to have you in the neighborhood”. Her mom had told them all to to say that if they ever encountered the new neighbors. 

“Thank you! We’re happy to be here”. He shakes her hand. “I’m Howard McBride. And- Harold! Come over here please!”. Another man, a tall, skinny, redhead comes over and loops a hand around Mr. McBride. “This is my husband, Harold McBride. And you’ve already met our Clyde”. Harold ruffles Clyde’s hair and Clyde looks like he wants to swat his hands away but he doesn’t. 

“Um.. where do you want these boxes?”. A man in a mover uniform interrupts and the McBrides give a quick goodbye as they scuttle off to direct the movers. 

“You have two dads?”. I say to Clyde after his dads have left. He shrugs. “Yeah. My mom died three years ago and my dads friend Harold came over to help my dad out with me. They got married last year”. He doesn’t seem like he wants to talk about it. She doesn't want too either. The only person she knew who died was her Grandma. She couldn’t imagine her mom dying. 

“Wanna go to the park? It’s down the street everyone goes”. A desperate attempt to change the subject.

“I dunno. I gotta ask my dad”. He mumbles. He walks over and taps his dad, and asks, She assumes. It's hard tp hear over the hustle and bustle and loud chatting. 

“He said yeah, but I gotta be back by lunch”.

Linka checked her watch. It’s usually permanently on her wrist. It’s nearly eleven. “Come on!”. She grabbed his hand and started leading him down the sidewalk.

He hurried after her, reclaiming his hand and followed at a steady pace as she pointed out buildings and places. “There’s the ice cream shop, since your new I bet Mr. Carner would give you one on the house. Oh and here’s the Park”.

The park, is very bare. One slide, a swing set with one broken swing, an old seesaw, and some dirty monkey bars. There’s a man made sand box that’s mostly just a big pile of sand that someone left years ago. And a jungle gym thats usually covered in spiderwebs.

Clyde doesn’t seem talkative. “There’s only one swing”. He doesn’t say it like it’s bad. More of that it’s an observation. Linka doesn’t know what to say to that. She’s been going to this park most of her life. 

“Well there’s still a slide. And one swing that does work!”. 

Clyde just shyly looks down at his game again. 

She huffs, marching over and sitting on a nearby bench as she side glares Clyde when he reluctantly walks over and sits down. 

“Are you mad?”.

“No”. She says grumpily. “I’ve just been waiting for a kid my age to move to my neighborhood forever, and no offense but you just don’t seem very nice!”. She crossed her arms.

“I have money”. He says randomly. 

Linka raises an eyebrow. “I-I mean. You seem mad and my dad says ice cream is good at getting people to forgive you so...”.

Linka doesn’t know what to say to that. 

“My favorite is strawberry”. 

They’ve been friends ever since.

///

“Avast!”. Linka, pirate hat sat crooked on her head shouts while standing on top of Clyde’s couch- which at the moment is acting as a pirate ship. 

Clyde has a eyepatch on, but he couldn’t see very well, so he had flipped it up in the middle of the game. 

The both had fake swords, and were issuing the living room as an ocean, the floor being the watee and the furniture being ships. Linka had more skill, she’d been playing pirates for a long time, and with all her siblings, she’d gotten really good at balancing and jumping from couches to chairs. 

“Yo ho ho!”. Clyde shouts one of his newly learned pirate words. He isn’t very good at pirates. His balance is always off and he constantly falls off whatever they’re standing on. Clyde is an only child and he never really had anyone to play pirates with before he met Linka. 

Linka has been spending a lot of time at Clyde’s house. It’s way less crowded than she’s used to. She can actually finish a movie instead of it getting changed in the middle, or make it through a meal if she stays for dinner without someone starting a food fight. 

“Aye matey!”. They’re swords clash and Clyde somehow slips and falls to the floor. Linka, in spirit of the game, joins him and they laugh enough that they’re gasping for breath. 

“Clyde, Linka! I’ve got lunch ready!”. Clyde’s other Dad, Howard, though Clyde refuses to call him Dad so she usually sticks to Mr. Howard, makes lunch most of the time since Clyde’s other actual Dad was at work.

They abandon their pirate gear and rush towards to table. Clyde’s dads don’t let them eat on the couch but since they’re together they can occupy each other. 

Clyde really likes comics, and Linka has begrudgingly let him drag her into liking them.

They each read one as they munch on sandwiche. Clyde is allergic to peanut butter, so his is turkey, while Linka snacks on a regular peanut butter and jelly. 

“We should watch a movie again when we finish! I’ve been trying to watch one of the Indiana Jones movie’s but no one ever lets me finish. Do you have em?”. Clyde thinks about it. “My Dad might. He and Howard have a bunch of old movies in the office”.

"Isn't it off limits?". Mr. Howard had told her a while ago that they weren't supposed to go inside.

Once they are finished eating , they carefully place their dishes in the sink. Clyde leads the way to Mr. Howard’s office and the two children creep inside, both looking for the dvd. She had asked why they didn’t just get Mr. Howard to help them find it, but Clyde didn’t seem to like the idea so she let it drop.

-/-

Okay so they got caught a lot faster than she expected. Mr. Howard, for all his worth, didn’t seem very upset. Just worried that they could’ve gotten hurt from any of the numerous supplies in the office. Guess that’s why it was off limits.

Clyde doesn’t seem in the mood for anything, and she quite honestly doesn’t wanna hang around a grump but Clyde is possibly her best friend outside her family and you can’t just leave a best friend when they’re upset. 

At least that’s what they said in the movies Loni liked to watch. 

“Are you okay?”. 

Clyde doesn’t turn but quietly answers. “I miss my mom”. Linka’s not sure what to say to that so she just envelopes him in a huge hug he reciprocated after a moments hesitation. 

“Do you wanna watch a movie?”. He giggles at her alarmed face. “Not one from the office I’ve got a bunch in my room”.

They spend the rest of the day watching Disney movies she’s seen a hundred times over, and laughing with Clyde when he admits he hasn’t seen the one they’re watching. 

All in all it’s a nice day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I also head canon that Clyde missed his mom a lot as a kid and was kinda upset and felt as if Harold had replaced her so he was a bit unwelcoming towards him until they were older.


	2. Let's go!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> *I watched the kissing booth recently and it’s gonna inspire some stuff for the story so warning*

‘C’mon Clyde we’re gonna be late!” Linka Loud shouted up the stairs to her best friend Clyde McBride. Said best friend stumbled as he slid down the stairs and nearly ran into the white haired girl. She scoffed, grabbing her wrist and pulling him out of the house as she shouted backwards “Okay we’re leaving bye!” And shutting the door before any early birds could respond. 

“Tell me why we’re leaving so early, again?”. Clyde asked as she tugged him down the sidewalk towards the bus stop. “Uh to avoid the disaster tornado that is my family. I’m gonna make a name for myself this year. I mean, this is high school Clyde! I can be someone else besides one of my brother’s sister”. 

Clyde pushed his glasses up as he attempted to get her to slow down. “Okay yeah I get that but we’re all gonna end up at the bus stop anyways. What does leaving early mean?”.

“It means I asked your dad to drive us so we’d get to school first. But then we spent the night at my house and I didn’t really have the time and-“. She sighed, finally coming to a stop. “Don’t question the plan Clyde”. He rolled his eyes but let her continue to pull him, muttering. “You and your plans”.

“Besides don’t you remember Middle School? It was me and my family circus and everyone immediately paired off with them. I was left in the dust! Anytime anyone talked to me it was always ‘oh your so and so’s sister aren’t you?’. Well not this time!”.

“Doesn’t it take forever for them to get Luna to drop them off anyways?”. 

She almost hates that he knows almost everything about her and her family. 

Almost.

“Clyde can we just go?”.

He relents and they make it to his house in time for a quick bite then she’s immediately rushing him into the car. 

-/-

The high school is way bigger than she remembers. She’s been in it of course. Having five older siblings that had went there she’d been to enough assemblies, sports games, and graduation ceremonies to last a lifetime. 

But it’s much bigger than the teeny jr. high she and Clyde had went to last year. She heard him audible swallow, clearly nervous, as the both stared up at the huge building they’ll be attending for the next four years. 

She judges him, hand extended out and he grabs it almost automatically. 

Out of the two of them, she’s always been the braver one. She’s held Clyde’s hand for the past, she doesn’t even know how many years. And he's always been there to do the same when she’s needs it. 

Hand in hand, they begin walking into the school. 

They find their lockers easily and the two blue metal compartments are right next to each other. She doesn’t really have any experience with them, so it takes a lot of fumbling and him eventually helping her to get the dumb thing open. 

“Thank you”. She says, taking a comic book out of her backpack and stuffing it in, just to have something inside.

“So what classes do you have? Think we have any of them together?”. Clyde asks nervously. She pulls out her crumpled schedule from her pocket, pointedly ignoring Clyde’s judgements look. “Um... I think I have Biology first? What about yo-“.

“Linka!”.

She turns at her name being called and a smile lights up her face. “Ronnie Anne!”.

Ronnie Anne strides over and Linka envelopes her in a hug. She hasn’t seen the girl since summer when’s she left to go visit her family, and she’s definitely missed her only girl friend. She loved Clyde, like another brother, but having a girl to talk to was amazing. Ronnie Anne hugged her back. 

“Linka! Clyde! How’s it going?”. She shoots a finger gun at Clyde who rolls his eyes but grins at her. They had been quite the trio last year. If she had anything, Linka at least had her friends. 

Ronnie Anne, thank god, still looked the same. Minor touch ups. Same large magenta hoodie and jeans, her hair definitely grew over summer. Unlike Clyde she hadn't shot up much in height. She and Linka were nearly the same height now, where as she’d been the shortest of the group last year. 

“How was summer with your family? Get into any trouble?”. Linka asks, as Clyde says something about them getting to their classes and they begin walking down the hallway. 

“Same as always. It’s as crowded as your house over there”. She nudged the white haired girl and laughed. Linka scoffed playfully. “I doubt it. At least I have a room that didn’t used to be a closet now, since Loni and Loki moved out. Everyone else moved up a room and I finally got one. But I’m gonna ask mom if I can get it carpeted again since it’s covered in stains I can’t even recognize”.

They laughed and continued chatting until Ronnie had to go a different way and promised to meet up during lunch. 

“So first class?”. Linka asks, and Clyde pulls out his paper which has been neatly folded in his shirt pocket. “I’ve got Algebra. And then-“. He squinted at the paper. “World Geography”. He ignored her mumble of “what even is that”. He had grabbed her schedule and scanned it. 

“We have four out of our seven classes together”. He deduced and she sighed. “Better than nothing”. She snatched the schedules back and studied them, letting Clyde guide her through the crowded hall. 

“We don’t have first togetter which sucks, or fifth or sixth meaning we have to meet up for lunch and separate after”. She studied it again. ”That blows”. 

“So we have to find somewhere to meet up for lunch”. He chimes, and she nods. “But at least we have seventh period together. So we can just leave and walk home together”.

“Okay this is my first. I’ll see you at second?”. She takes her schedule back and gives him a nervous smile. “Yeah”.

“Wish me luck”. And she watches him walk down the hall until she can’t see him anymore, before finally walking into the classroom. 


End file.
